La ceramica medievale e postmedievale

The author analyses 120 ceramic sherds (plus a small number of non-vessel objects) from the medieval and post-medieval phases of Mot del Castel. The resulting picture is distinctive: almost all the material comes from late medieval and Renaissance levels (Phase VI and cleaning layers), when the area had become an open cultivated space, and coarse utilitarian cooking wares are markedly under-represented in comparison with glazed and slipped wares. After a methodological introduction, the main classes are distinguished: common kitchen ware (very few examples), early medieval glazed ware in residual position, slipped and polychrome sgraffito, Renaissance sgraffito, and tin-glazed ceramics. The earliest fragments belong to late antique–early medieval glazed wares (6th–7th centuries), found in later contexts and interpreted as evidence for occupation prior to the visible settlement phases. The bulk of the assemblage belongs to the late medieval and Renaissance periods: bowls and dishes in polychrome slipped sgraffito with vegetal and geometric motifs; late “archaic” sgraffito of the 14th century and “Renaissance” sgraffito (15th–early 16th centuries) characteristic of the Alpine Lombard area; tin-glazed wares with polychrome decoration (blue, turquoise, green, manganese brown), attributable to specialised extra-Alpine productions (probably Romagnol, such as Faenza). Some fragments, such as a tin-glazed albarello, point to containers for high-value or pharmaceutical substances. Although heavily fragmented, the assemblage allows several observations: at Piuro, the ready availability of pietra ollare reduced the need for ceramic cooking ware, while glazed and slipped table and storage wares are well attested and in line with consumption trends in late medieval Lombardy. Even when residual, the earliest glazed ceramics and the range of later productions illustrate the site’s participation in the same circulation networks that affected Valtellina and the Po Plain, involving both imports and local imitations.